Sex-dependent effects of traumatic stress on social behavior and neuronal activation in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala

Social behavior is complex and fundamental, and deficits in social behavior are common pathological features for a variety of psychiatric disorders including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Acute stress has a negative impact on social behavior, and these effects may vary based on sex. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of footshock stress on the sociability of male and female C57Bl/6J mice. Animals were divided into two main groups of footshock exposure or context exposure control. Each group had mice that were treated with either the benzodiazepine alprazolam, or vehicle. Neuronal activation during social interaction was assessed using immunohistochemistry against the immediate early gene product cFos. Footshock stress induced a significantly increased latency to approach a social interaction counterpart in both sexes. Stress-induced increases in defensive tail-rattling behavior elicited during the sociability test were sex-dependent and alleviated by alprazolam. Alprazolam also lowered social exploration and neuronal activation in the infralimbic medial prefrontal cortex. Social interaction induced sex-dependent differences in cFos activation in the lateral subdivision of the central nucleus of the amygdala and ventromedial intercalated cell clusters. Overall, our results suggest that acute footshock stress induces alterations in sociability and patterns of cFos activation in a sex-dependent manner.

A Model in Female Rats With Phenotypic Features Similar to Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome

This report describes methodological and exploratory investigations of the zymosan-induced neonatal bladder inflammation (NBI) model of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) in female rats. These results validate and extend the currently employed model by evaluating critical timepoints for obtaining treatment effects and identified that a second insult as an adult including repeat intravesical zymosan, intravesical lipopolysaccharide, acute footshock stress, neuropathic nociception (facial) or somatic inflammation (hindpaw) all resulted in magnified visceromotor responses to urinary bladder distension (UBD) in rats which had experienced NBI when compared with their controls. NBI also resulted in increased tone and reactivity of pelvic floor musculature to UBD, as well as increased responsiveness to intravesical potassium chloride solutions, abnormal anxiety measures (elevated plus maze) and an increased number of submucosal petechial hemorrhages following 30 min of hydrodistension of the bladder. These phenotypic findings have correlates to the clinical features of IC/BPS in humans and so support use of this model system to examine mechanisms of and treatments for IC/BPS.

The Effect of Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor Milnacipran on Anxiety-like Behaviors in Diabetic Mice

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that causes neuronal plasticity and increased hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis of stress disorders. The change in metabolism is reportedly associated with inadequate response to antianxiety and antidepressant agents. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of milnacipran antidepressants on anxiety-like behavior in mice with diabetes mellitus. Methods: Male ICR mice were divided into naive, stress, diabetes mellitus (DM), DM + stress groups to measure anxiety-like behavior. Diabetes mellitus was induced using alloxan, and electric footshock stress was used as a stressor for 14 consecutive days. Anxiety-like behavior was measured using the light-dark box (LDB) and elevated plus maze (EPM) test at days 0, 7 and 14. The antidepressant milnacipran (MIL) was given for 7 days, on days 8 to 14. On day 14, evaluation of anxiety-like behavior after administration of MIL was carried out in all groups using LDB and EPM tests. Results: The results showed that administration of milnacipran effectively ameliorated anxiety-like behavior in the non-DM, but not in the DM group, using the LDB test. A similar result was demonstrated in the EPM test showing the non-DM group's attenuation after milnacipran administration. Conclusion: The present results indicate that there is an inadequate attenuation of the anxiety-like behavior after treatment with milnacipran in diabetes conditions.

MODULATORY EFFECT OF HARMINE ON SPATIAL MEMORY, FERTILITY VIA MAO INHIBITION, PREVENTING ANEMIA AND ANTI-NOCICEPTION UPON FOOTSHOCK STRESS AT THREE STAGES OF PREGNANT RATS

Aim and objective: Stress has overwhelmed the world, mortality due to stress is continually increasing, and pregnancy has known by its physiological modulation. This article has a clear explanation about the effect of the ß-carboline alkaloid harmine containing in the plant of Peganum harmala, it makes a huge debate in many countries as Iran, Brazil, Algeria, China, Australia about the main component that exerted abortion and until now there is no work resolved the matter. Methods: In this study, we planned our experience, so that each sub-group treated with harmine, stressed with footshock or received the both, according to their pregnancy stages. Results: Footshock stress as expected with its maximum intensity could be tolerated by the fetuses so could keep the rats pregnant along the main stage, damaged to several physiological parameters, but it makes a good pairing with harmine. Conclusion: Harmine has enhanced the cognition during pregnancy, and exerted its anxiolytic effect too. Its decreasing effect of food consumption and enhancement of implantation was the main reason to confirm its raising estrogen levels from previous works, raising thrombocytes due to its enhancement of serotonin via its effect of monoamine-oxydase inhibitor MAO I. In other hand, footshock stress even its expected placentation defect but it seemed having an ameliorating effect on immune function during pregnancy. Peer Review History: Received: 8 September 2021; Revised: 11 October; Accepted: 26 October, Available online: 15 November 2021 Academic Editor: Dr. Gehan Fawzy Abdel Raoof Kandeel, Pharmacognosy Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, 12622, Giza, Egypt, [email protected] UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file: Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 5.0/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewers: Prof. Dr. Hassan A.H. Al-Shamahy, Sana'a University, Yemen, [email protected] Dr. Bilge Ahsen KARA, Ankara Gazi Mustafa Kemal Hospital, Turkey, [email protected] Dr. Muhammad Zahid Iqbal, AIMST University, Malaysia, [email protected] Dr. Vanina Doris Edo’o, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroun, [email protected] Similar Articles: EFFECT OF THE AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF CLERODENDRUM THOMSONIAE LINN (VERBENACEAE) LEAVES ON TYPE 2 DIABETIC WISTAR RATS INDUCED BY THE MACAPOS1 TYPE DIET AND DEXAMETHASONE MYOCARDIAL POTENCY OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF HARUNGANA MADAGASCARIENSIS STEM BARK AGAINST ISOPROTERENOL-INDUCED MYOCARDIAL DAMAGE IN RATS

Early maturational emergence of adult-like emotional reactivity and anxiety after brief exposure to an obesogenic diet

ABSTRACTBackgroundEmerging evidence demonstrates that diet-induced obesity disrupts corticolimbic circuits underlying emotional regulation. Studies directed at understanding how obesity alters brain and behavior are easily confounded by a myriad of complications related to obesity. This study investigated the early neurobiological stress response triggered by an obesogenic diet. Furthermore, this study directly determined the combined impact of a short-term obesogenic diet and adolescence on critical behavioral and molecular substrates implicated in emotion regulation and stress.MethodsAdolescent (postnatal day 31) or adult (postnatal day 81) Lewis rats were fed for one week with an experimental Western-like high-saturated fat diet (WD, 41% kcal from fat) or a matched control diet (CD, 13% kcal from fat). We used the acoustic fear-potentiated startle (FPS) paradigm to determine the effects of the WD on cued fear conditioning and fear extinction. We used c-Fos mapping to determine the functional influence of the diet and stress on corticolimbic circuits.ResultsWe report that one-week WD consumption was sufficient to induce fear extinction deficits in adolescent rats, but not in adult rats. We identify fear-induced alterations in corticolimbic neuronal activation and demonstrate increased prefrontal cortex CRHR1 mRNA levels in the rats that consumed the WD.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that short-term consumption of an obesogenic diet during adolescence heightens behavioral and molecular vulnerabilities associated with risk for anxiety and stress-related disorders. Given that fear extinction promotes resilience, and that fear extinction principles are the foundation of psychological treatments for PTSD, understanding how obesogenic environments interact with the adolescent period to affect the acquisition and expression of fear extinction memories is of tremendous clinical relevance.HIGHLIGHTSShort-term WD consumption during adolescence impairs cued fear extinction memory retention in a fear-potentiated startle paradigm.Short-term WD consumption during adolescence attenuates neuronal activation to electric footshock stress in the basomedial nuclei of the amygdala.Short-term WD consumption increases CRHR1 mRNA levels in the medial prefrontal cortex.Adult LEW rats exhibit increased basal HPA axis tone and heightened emotional reactivity to footshock stress relative to adolescent rats.